Secularism between Quranism and Earthly, Man-Made Religions of the Muhammadans

Published in December 11, 2010

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Firstly:

1- He graduated from the faculty of medicine, Cairo University, in 1967, after the Six-Day War, and his father died in the same year, after his mother died. Within the general despair felt by all Egyptians at the time, he decided to immigrate to the USA, leaving behind in Egypt a huge mansion in his native village, and a large stretch of land with fields farmed by his paternal uncles' sons. This medical doctor had no siblings or wife, and he traveled alone to the USA.

2- Once in the USA, he excelled in his field of specialization: surgery. He grew very rich and temporarily forgot all about Egypt, his native village, and his relatives, as he never visited Egypt. Upon his retirement, he had ample spare time to dwell upon memories of Egypt in his past; he felt overpowering nostalgia and thought about returning to Egypt to spend the rest of his lifetime there. His friends of Egyptian origin who frequently visited Egypt advised him not to do this; they warned him that Egypt and Egyptians have changed to the worst, and the moralistic level became lowered, to the extent that people torment one another, and they are being tortured by a police state! Yet, his nostalgia was greater, and he decided to visit his native village first before he would decide to settle in Egypt for good or to remain in his new homeland.

3- Inside the plane heading to Egypt, he dreamt of making use of his wealth to serve his native village and its people, initially by building a sports club and a school for girls, and then, he would see if he can serve the villagers in some other ways as well as per their problems.

4- Once he reached his village, he was shocked to the core; the image of his village in his mind vanished forever: streets were narrowed with new houses of stone, and the village seemed like a mélange between a city and village! The canal of pure water (opened by the late President Abdel-Nasser years ago) turned into a place of sewage! The only school was filled to the brim with students who find no classrooms, and there was no sports playground or any room for other extracurricular activities. Even the remaining ones among his relatives (and indeed all the rest of the villagers) have changed to the worst; the chastity, contentment, altruism, and good-naturedness of the 1960s were replaced by greed, egoism, stinginess, and sexual immorality. His relatives desired to have shares of his wealth and gifts, and they slandered one another behind their backs to attempt to win his favor! Many of the accusations and slanders turned out to be true - after some research and investigation on his part. He was shocked again to the core, as no one behaved in within the moralistic and ethical level he expected, and all of them covered immorality and corruption with a veneer of religiosity in terms of empty words and dress codes for men and women: niqab, hijab, beards, etc. Besides, he discovered that his paternal uncles' sons confiscated his mansion and stretch of land and farms by forged contracts! Even the mansion was dilapidated and he had to spend his nights in a dirty room inside it! He discovered that all youths of the village had received corrupt education and corrupt Wahabi code of behavior. He assured his relatives he did not want to retrieve his mansion or lands, as he was rich enough, and that he will return to the USA again. He was shocked the more as the new generation of his male bearded relatives saw him as an 'infidel' American man of the camp of 'infidels' and not a Muslim, thus never deserving to own anything in their village of 'Muslims' and he did not ever deserve to be thanked for ceding his land and mansion to them!

5- He decided that this would be his last visit and that he will return to his real homeland, the USA, but before he'd leave Egypt for good, he decided to do something useful to his native country before leaving it forever: he would build a sports club for the youth there, but he was disappointed very much!

6- He was visited by the imam of the mosque of the village, who angrily sermonized him about how such a club will certainly spread immorality among male and female youths of the village, and that he should donate money to the mosque to win a palace in Paradise as per the famous hadith! Other villagers nodded in approval as they listened, but many of them smiled knowingly, as they remembered how this imam used to commit fornication and steal money donated to the mosque to build for himself three blocks of apartments and a villa in the nearby city, plus a poultry farm! This imam's ill-gotten money increased as he built the three-story mosque to make the ground floor for prayers, and the other stories for private lessons for students and for a clinic! This was an investment made in the name of God and His religion! The American-Egyptian man remembered how the old, former mosque was simply built and never used for any other purposes, and how his father built it using his own money to serve the spiritual needs of the villagers for free.

7- The imam fell silent and waited for the effect of his words to sink into the villagers and the American-Egyptian surgeon; he dreamt of stealing some dollars from this infidel! The surgeon smiled finally and asked the imam about the low moralistic level of the youths and the elderly people of the village, though this imam remained in the mosque for 30 years! The imam seized the chance to curse all the villagers for their immorality, greed, and money-worship and he praised and paid homage to the 1960s and its generation of generosity, morals, etc.

8- The surgeon told the imam calmly that his preaching for 30 years was in vain, since corruption and immorality increased in the village, despite the fact that frequenters of the mosque increased exponentially in comparison to the past. This means that the mosque is a center of harm and corruption by condoning and encouraging bad behavior; how come he would donate money to a hub of corruption and to a bunch of failures who could not reform the villagers! This mosque is indeed a bad project! The surgeon raised his voice, calling for building a club with social activities, halls for sports, a theater for plays, lecture rooms, a movie theater, a library, etc. to ameliorate the moralistic and cultural level of youths in the village, as the mosque failed in its mission to do so. The imam grew so furious that his face reddened and he cursed all the American-Egyptians who are atheists desiring to spread the sin of fornication among 'believers' in Egypt and to corrupt all people! The imam screamed at the people that this surgeon is a secular, atheist person who will dwell in Hell forever! The surgeon left the village this very night and took the plane from Cairo airport back to his homeland, the USA, to remain there for the rest of his days.

Lastly:

This above story is fictional, but it is realistic as its events are derived from the real-life in Egypt now; parts of this story occur every now and then in Mubarak's Egypt now, as the generation of 1967-2010 is shocked by the radical changes to the worst and the despicable conditions on all levels of Egypt now. This fictional story aims to analyze the position of (believing) secularism between Islam (i.e., Quranism) and the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans. This secular surgeon in the story embodies the essence of Islam in dealing peacefully with people, while the bearded villagers with their thief of an imam represent how conditions are worsened when the earthly, man-made Sunnite/Wahabi religion dominates over people. This entails some explanation in the following points.

1- During the era of President Nasser, and even before him, the believing secularism (i.e., that cares for religious freedom and not for spreading atheism) dominated in Egypt in most cases; i.e., to be religious or not was a personal choice at the time and the State never interfered in that choice as this was (and is) a special relation between mortal human beings and God, and the society should never interfere in it at all. During such an epoch (c. 1900- c. 1966), it was rare to find someone manipulating religion to gain money, stature, authority, and power, despite the existence of Al-Azhar institution in Cairo, Egypt, whose men worked for the State as preachers and the notion of clergymen (in the manner of the Orthodox Church) did not exist at the at-the-time civil institution of Al-Azhar. This was the state of affairs despite the prevalence of Sunnite Sufism at the time, with its living and dead sheikhs/saints and festivals, with no interference at all in political life, and no sheikhs to attempt to control society and stifle opposite views and opinions. It was even OK at the time to criticize Sufism, though Sufism is based on pluralism and liberalism as well as diversity within Sufi orders. All this changed once Sadat took over power in Egypt: he allied himself to the cursed Wahabi MB terrorist group (whose one of its member assassinated him in 1981) and to the KSA, and he intentionally let Salafists and Wahabis control Al-Azhar as well as all mosques, schools, media, etc., and this led to the corrosion of the civil state in Egypt and its liberalism inherited from the era of the king Muhammad Ali Pacha and maintained by the military regime of Nasser. Sadat was a hypocrite who feigned being religious and called himself the 'believer' president (as if Nasser were an atheist!) and he said in the media that his role model was Omar Ibn Al-Khattab. Sadat committed the unforgettable sin of converting Egypt into Salafism and Wahabi religiosity that undermined everything in Egypt in all fields, to the lowest depths of deterioration.

2- Within such lowest depths of deterioration, we see the features of how earthly, man-made religions dominate certain societies and cause the lowest moralistic level among people and maintain corruption and tyranny, while civilization would vanish. This is a long, painful story, but we assert the following few points from it.

2/1: All things made legal in the Quran (by being not prohibited in the Quranic text) decrease in number by Wahabi sharia and clergymen that prohibit myriads of things for no reason, thus violating the Quranic sharia of Islam. Wahabis aim to control all minute aspects of life of all Wahabis: politically, scientifically, socially, economically, etc. as if every issue needs a fatwa by Al-Azhar or any other Wahabi clergymen! As if clergymen agree unanimously on anything and as if they understand all fields of life! As if their obscurantism and backwardness (breastfeeding adults, getting cured by urine of the prophet, drinking water with dead flies, etc.) do not count! How come that in our modern era of advancement and the internet one would rely on Sunnite books written in the Middle-Ages of terrorism, brutality, bloodshed?! Extremism reigns supreme in Egypt and in the Arab world, and scandals of sexual immorality, corruption, embezzlement, money laundering etc. increase with the passage of time, covered at first in the thick veil of Wahabi religiosity. Indeed, Wahabi Azharite clergy are kept only to serve the military regime in Egypt under Mubarak's rule, in the way the Wahabi Saudi clergymen serves the tribe of Al-Saud who rule the KSA.

2/2: Within such conditions, the Egyptian government aims at diverting citizens with trivial matters and news while keeping them busy with Wahabi dress-codes, values, and manners of such earthly, man-made religion. No one in Egypt cares for hundreds of thousands of Muslims being massacred in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Palestine, and no one cares about tyranny, corruption, and torture spreading in Egypt, inflicted by the affluent class to the vast majority of poor citizens. The reason: everyone is busy with countless Wahabi laws in daily life: niqab, beards, dress-codes, practices, etc. as per teachings spread and propagated by well-paid clergy in the Egyptian media!

3- Islam as the celestial religion and message of God is linked to upholding justice: "We sent Our messengers with the clear proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, that humanity may uphold justice..." (57:25). In contrast, the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans are based on maintaining injustices and violating piety. Even all acts of worship by Wahabis are leading to more corruption, violence, cheating, and ill-gotten money. Real acts of worship devoted to God must lead to high moralistic level in dealing with people within fairness and justice without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the core of Wahabism: corrupters on Earth who compete for ill-gotten money vie also for performing pilgrimages annually and repeatedly to the Kaaba in Mecca and to the Yathreb mausoleum!

4- Proofs of what we are talking about here are so many, but we briefly assert in the following points the contradictions between secular Islam (i.e., Qurnaism) and earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans that aim at establishing a theocracy of injustice, tyranny, and corruption.

4/1: Islam (i.e., the Quran) asserts that no one is to bear the blame on behalf of any other sinner; this is a personal, individual responsibility. Thus, the State has no mission to make citizens enter into Paradise in the Hereafter; its real mission is to ensure human rights and serve all citizens equally to provide welfare for them. Guidance (as well as misguidance) is a personal, individual responsibility as per the Quran; there is no compulsion in religion nor mediators (i.e., clergy and institutions) between man and God. Judgment of all human beings' faith and deeds is postponed till the Last Day in the Hereafter. There could be thinkers in religious thought, but their views are theirs and representing their minds, NOT the religion of God; i.e., they are not to be made infallible and they are not to impose their views on people or to persecute those who have other views. Sadly, Coptic Christian Orthodox and Shiite minorities are persecuted in Egypt, Shiites are persecuted in the KSA, and Sunnites are persecuted in Iran.

4/2: Good deeds in Islam are based on voluntary work, NOT on manipulating religion to gain money. In contrast, clergymen of Sunnites, Sufis, and Shiites trade with God's Quranic verses to gain ill-gotten money and possessions of the transient world by manipulating religion in political life and competition, within corruption, tyranny, and injustices maintained by those clergymen who serve the affluent ruling classes.

4/3: Good deeds in Islam include acts of worship as well as charity works for the benefit of society; e.g., to help the poor, the sick, the impecunious, the orphans, strangers, poor travelers, etc. by establishing hospitals, hostels, houses for orphans and the homeless, centers to train the youths to get jobs and learn professions, donating money to the needy, etc. In contrast, within the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans, money is donated, and stolen, within mosques that spread falsehoods and the ideologies of polytheism, deifying mortals, terrorism, violence, corruption, and persecution of the other. Imams and clergy of such mosques brainwash youths to turn them into terrorists ready of massacre and commit suicide bombings!

4/4: In real Islam, one can pray anywhere, not necessarily in mosques; the Quran repeats the command to purify and liberate mosques from tyrants of the Taghut (i.e., the devilish, earthly, man-made religions of polytheism and violence) who use mosques to spread, incite, and cause harm, while preventing preachers of reform to enter mosques and all houses of worship. This crime was committed by enemies of Quranists in Egypt against peaceful Quranist preachers who imitated Muhammad the prophet in his call using only the Quran; this verse applies to those criminals: "Who is more unjust than him who forbids the remembrance of God's name in places of worship, and contributes to their ruin? These ought not to enter them except in fear. For them is disgrace in this world, and for them is a terrible punishment in the Hereafter." (2:114). Quranists preach the importance of dedicating and devoting acts of worship to God in Azan, prayers, testimony of faith, supplication, etc. as no mortal's name (including Muhammad's) to be mentioned at all within all acts of worship; Quranists in Egypt suffered violence and persecution inflicted on them as a result. This occurred to Muhammad as we understand from these verses: "The places of worship are for God. So do not call, besides God, upon anyone else. And when the servant of God got up calling on Him, they almost fell on him in a mass. Say, "I pray only to my Lord, and I never associate anyone with Him." Say, "It is not in my power to harm you, nor to bring you to right conduct." Say, "No one can protect me from God, and I will not find any refuge except with Him. Except for a proclamation from God and His messages. He who defies God and His Messenger-for him is the Fire of Hell, in which they will dwell forever."" (72:18-23). These are few points to indicate the features of true, secular Islam (i.e., Quranism), within a believing type of secularism, that contradicts theocracy of the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans. If readers have not discerned these features yet, they are to re-read the first half of this article that contains the story of the surgeon, to see how we can retrieve secular Islam if we apply in Egypt the solution proposed by this secular surgeon.

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